Heating pad for incubator?

[SophieLain127]

When I was little I had a friend who found a duck egg she thought was abandoned. She took it home and put a towel around it and placed it on a heating pad. She rotated it and kept it very warm and eventually it hatched. She didn't know how to feed it so I ratted her out to her mom who bought some feed for it and eventually found the duckling a new home. My friend got in big trouble.

My question is can use use a heating pad instead of a heat lamp?

 

[evonne]

for incubating??or for brooding after???

i use a heating pad in my brooder after they hatch.. i like it.. it's gotten me through 6 sets of chicks now....
and i dont seem to have pileup issues that people get with heatlamps....

as far as incubating, i would worry about the humidity... is it humid enough in general in your house??
i think i've read where people will just use a cardboard box and a het lamp, so i don't see why it wouldn't work if you can keep your temp and humidity stable

 

[hrdwrkgrl]

I don't know about hatching eggs.. way too advanced for me just yet.... However, I do know the new model heating pads has an automatic cut off.... (speaking from sad cricket raising experience...). xoxoxox

 

[SophieLain127]

thanks everyone. I was thinking of putting it under the tote and setting the water on it so the water heated up too. It was for hatching. We were about 9 years old and come to find out she wasn't supposed to have the egg. She took it from one of the ducks by her apartment's pond. When she couldn't figure out why the chick wouldn't eat bread I told on her and her mom took care of it and found it a home.

 

[MrRoy]

I started using a heating pad (along with a light) in my homemade bator. I decided to use it because I live in a drafty old house and it was hard to keep the temps stable. I placed it in the bottom under the water pan. It helped with humidity as well. Be sure to use a pad that you can use with moist heat. Mine was the Walgreens model HP 150.

 

[SophieLain127]

Thank you.

 

[wildwort]

Good morning, sun is shining and the chickens are knee high in clover, so a good morning. I've got a barred rock hen setting on too many eggs, I want to incubate the ones that she leaves when she leaves with the early hatchers. Can you share with me how you have you home made incubator set up? With the heating pad and heat lamp. Thanks TK I was planning to place my pad under a roaster pan with water and a rack in it, towel and eggs snuggled hopeful the right way up on the rack, put the lid on once I got the temp right. Help would be appreciated.

 

[FlomatonsFlocks]

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